Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. We will note that as well as the issue of non-compliant procurement to which our attention has been drawn and the EPA fine.

No. 4.2 is the clear audit opinion for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The item following that, No. 4.3, is Pobal's 2018 accounts, which also feature non-compliant procurement. We will send the standard letter to Pobal regardless of the fact that its representatives will be before us next Thursday. Chapter 16 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report examines Pobal's administration of the early learning and childcare funding programme. That chapter is on our agenda for next week.

No. 4.2 is the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board's 2018 financial statements, which we will discuss in public session in a few minutes. The statement notes that the cost of superannuation entitlements is accounted for as they become available rather than in the year of entitlement, as is standard for health bodies. We will raise that question in public session very shortly.

The next matter for discussion is the committee's work programme. Pobal's representatives will appear next Thursday to account for that organisation's expenditure and we will discuss the chapter from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report dealing with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. We will decide on Thursday morning whether to have a separate session dealing with the Oireachtas printer and related matters.

For the first meeting in the new year on 16 January, we have pencilled in an engagement with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Our second meeting will be with the Department of Education and Skills. A meeting with the Office of Public Works has been provisionally arranged for 2 February. There is a gap on 31 January next year, for which we will have a proposal next week. That is as far as the work programme for next year has got.

Chapter 8 of this year's report from the Comptroller and Auditor General deals with controls over humanitarian assistance funding. Irish Aid operates a humanitarian assistant programme which falls under Vote 27, international co-operation, and is managed by the Department. In his report the Comptroller and Auditor General acknowledges the challenges in effectively distributing aid in such circumstances. The total amount involved was €792 million in 2018. We can very easily examine everything that happens here in the jurisdiction but it is important to occasionally examine how taxpayer's money is spent overseas. The difficulties in Syria and Yemen account for approximately a quarter of the total aid. In light of that, I suggest that in the new year, if we are all here, the committee should consider a visit to one of the overseas aid projects. We did that some years ago. Perhaps at this point we can agree in principle to let the secretariat make some provisional arrangements.

It would be helpful if we agree, in principle, to let the secretariat make provisional arrangements. There is no decision to go yet. We will see how the provisional arrangements work out and they can be discussed here after the break. We may chose to go or not to go. As I said, it is that part of expenditure that is expended outside the State, which is worth intermittent scrutiny not every year but on occasion, and we can decide to do that.